Pather Panchali (1955)

Amazingly, filmmaker Satyajit Ray's debut feature was not universally acclaimed on its initial release. But the critics and historians who did champion it have been more than justified in their praise for Ray's poetic yet naturalistic look at a family living in rural poverty. The father is a dreamer but hardly a schemer; the mother is hard-headed about an elderly and sickly aunt but loving to her children. The daughter, on the cusp of adolescence, wants desperately to have friends but is resentful of the good fortune of others, and the son observes all of the events with unreserved innocence. Ray's camera focuses on simple images from nature or facial expressions that speak volumes; the dialogue in this film seems almost superfluous. In the film's most wrenching sequence, the mother spends a sleepless night caring for a sick child while a storm threatens her flimsy curtains and splintered door; the imagery is worthy of silent masters such as D.W. Griffith or F.W. Murnau. The story that continues with the final two films in the Apu Trilogy is among the great achievements in all of movie history. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide